Not sure where it originated, but the photo has been posted multiple times. The translation is “Champion angels, you are in our hearts forever”. Today is the anniversary of the major earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria a year ago. Over 50,000 Turks were killed as well as nearly six thousand Syrians.
And then there were the junior high school students from North Cyprus. Twenty-four students from Famagusta, volleyball players aged from eleven to fourteen, delighted to be attending a tournament. And accompanied by ten parents, four teachers and a coach. All died when the hotel they were staying in collapsed. It’s a small country. Not everyone personally knew someone who had been killed but everyone had a friend or a relative who did. When we arrived here two days later the whole country was in mourning. And for days now the papers have contained heartbreaking in memoriams testifying to a grief that is still raw.